Chris Lombardi puts defense and security under the spotlight, as he shares his takes on recent NATO and EU cooperation and provides insight into the company’s own long-term strategic partnerships in Europe.

Three trends are currently driving the global electricity sector: decarbonization, decentralization and differentiation. Utilities are making significant contributions to mitigate carbon emissions, while a technology revolution is …

Pan-European ticketing systems, please

Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for transport, who is a noted enthusiast for railways, has been urging Europe’s train operators to speed up the development of pan-European ticketing systems.

But national rivalries among Europe’s railway companies are so great that the companies cannot even agree who should be the next executive director of its pan-European lobby group.

A meeting last week (3 May) of the 70-odd companies belonging to the Brussels-based Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) was supposed to choose the new executive director. But none of the five candidates obtained the required two-thirds majority.

SNCF and Deutsche Bahn, the two most influential railway companies, were, it seems, at loggerheads about who should be in charge, with Jean-Michel Dancoisne, SNCF’s permanent representative in Brussels, and Jürgen Rüttgers, a former minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia, pitched against each other.

Berlin lobbied for Rüttgers, but this went down badly in Paris, where officials think that Germany has been in the driver’s seat for long enough because Johannes Ludewig, a former boss of Deutsche Bahn, has held the job since 2002.

The CER has promised to choose his successor at its next general assembly meeting in September. Ludewig is scheduled to retire, but will stay in post until the end of the year, trusting that Europe can make train appointments run on time.